physics is a lot cooler than you think guys!!

a few weeks ago i was at the airport dragging my suitcase around when i absentmindedly started spinning it by the handle

before learning the parallel axis theorem, this would've meant absolutely nothing to me

but we'd recently covered it in class, and suddenly i couldn't stop thinking about it. the suitcase felt different to rotate depending on where the axis was, and i realized i was literally feeling the theorem in my hands

the weird thing is that the suitcase wasn't doing anything new. it had always obeyed the same physics. i had just never noticed it before

i think that's my favorite part about learning physics. you learn some concept in class, move on with your life, and then a few days later you see it hiding in something completely ordinary

a formula stops being a formula and starts being something real

the world itself doesn't change. the suitcase spins the same way it always did. you're just seeing a little more of what's been there all along

most people see a suitcase

i see rotational inertia

which is either evidence that physics is beautiful or that i've completely lost the plot